“Extreme Situations, Large Development Projects and Indigenous Peoples: Corporate Indigenism in Comparative Perspective”

Deadline for submission of articles: May 30th 2018.

Coordinators

Dr. Stephen Grant Baines (UnB)

Dr. Cristhian Teófilo da Silva (UnB)

In the early 90’s of the XXth century, anthropologist Stephen Baines analyzed an aspect of the ethnic policy adopted by the Brazilian government that consisted (and still do) in the enlargement of the infrastructure of large economic entrepreneurships like dams for the generation of energy, mining sites, roads, sea port complexes etc., inside and across Indigenous Peoples territories. The “corporate indigenism” practiced henceforth among the Waimiri-Atroari people was directed by a Non Governmental Organization that operated inside Eletronorte Energy Company itself, the Waimiri-Atroari Program, implemented since April 1987, six months earlier the closure of the levees of Balbina High Dam in the state of Amazonas. The power plant flooded a vast area of the Waimiri-Atroari and it benefitted the immediate interest of Taboca Mining Company that had also invaded the indigenous territory. The “corporate indigenism” in this case was based on the promotion of “indigenous leaderships” as spokespeople of the companies and of the government agency in the field that prepared them to transmit the orders of the companies and of the program designed to “govern the Indians”. It was an extreme case of subordination of an Indigenous People to the national and international developmentalist interest that is similar to other circumstances affecting other Indigenous Peoples in Brazil. To mention just a few other cases, Eletronorte also promoted the Parakanã Program to “assist” an Indigenous People affected by the Tucuruí Dam in the state of Pará, and FURNAS company promoted the Avá-Canoeiro Program in the state of Goiás.

Considering the multiplicity and multiplication of extreme situations for the ethnic survival and autonomy of Indigenous Peoples facing the spatial expansion of neoliberal capitalism, it is urgent to comparatively share empirical studies of other cases of “corporate indigenism” in the Americas. It is crucial to investigate the consequences of such phenomena and the diverse strategies that corporate companies are implementing and also the Indigenous Peoples responses to it. In this way, we propose this dossier aiming to enlarge the descriptive and analytical depth of the notion of “corporate indigenism” encompassing not only cases of cooptation and capitulation to corporate power, but Indigenous Peoples diverse experiences with capitalist endeavors and neoliberal policies emphasizing neocolonial situations, social processes and social/cultural dynamics that threatens Indigenous Peoples’ autonomy. We also welcome empirical analysis of indigenous and local practices and forms of challenging and resisting capitalism. In this sense, this dossier is open to articles on ethnodevelopment and the “indigenization of development”, among other cases of Indigenous appropriation of companies and capitalist practices, following the seminal critical reflections on the topic advanced by Jean and John Comaroff in “Ethnicity Inc.” (2009). The main objective is to gather research that help to cover other regions and sectors of global capitalism that are being incorporated by different cosmological local systems at the same time that are being transformed by it, to mention the seminal contribution on this regard made by Marshall Sahlins (1988).

The dossier will be structured after two thematic axes: a) Empirical studies of extreme situations of capitalism affecting Indigenous Peoples and local communities and attempts to define “ethnodevelopment”, “ethnocapitalism” and its consequences and impacts; b) Reviews of empirical cases of “corporate indigenism” and of the cosmologies of capitalism that helps to construct comparative concepts and interpretations of such cases. Other related articles that are directly included under these thematic axes may be submitted if they address issues common to the problematic of “corporate indigenism” or can contribute to the comparative study of the topic.

Instructions to the authors and to submit the article please go to the following address:

TheJournal of Study and Research on the Americasaccepts unpublished articles written by authors with well-established academic careers and who write within the scope of the journal.

The journal also publishes book reviews and interviews. Works may be submitted at any time of the year in Portuguese, Spanish and English (they may also be published in other languages at the discretion of the editorial board).